I grew up with games. My dad worked in IT, and would bring home all kinds of weird and wonderful machines and software including classics like Space Invaders, King's Quest, and Bouncing Babies. I think at some point we owned each different early console out there, from the BBC Micro to the ZX80 to the Commodore 64 and my beloved Atari ST.

I can still remember that feeling I got playing the very first games -- an absolute sense of wonder. I loved movies and books, but I loved games in a completely different way. Being able to control what my character did, and exploring someone else's world was better than any book or movie. My favourites were the Infocom text adventures and the early RPGs like Hack and Dungeon Master, although I wasn't averse to a good shooter like Xenon II or Xevious. Like around 78,000 other people, I would buy computer magazines like Your Sinclair and painstakingly re-type the programs that were printed on their pages. I tried my hand at creating my own games too -- it was great the way that anyone with some spare time and the patience to learn a computer language could create one from their bedroom.

I've watched games grow up as I've grown up. These days, you can do much, much more than just shooting things and solving puzzles -- you can explore beautifully rendered worlds, meet believable virtual characters and become absolutely engrossed in great stories. One of my favourite things is the way some games let you really live in their world, and that you can do things like choose a partner, go on dates, get married, buy a house, and have children. I thought it would be interesting to write about sex and relationships in games, along with other things like how women are portrayed, gender roles, and being gay. I'll be looking at new games as they are released, as well as looking back at some notable older ones which are already on the shelves.

Here are my game reviews.

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